College & Life Opportunities

Click College Guidance Handbook to view the Portland Waldorf High School’s College Guidance Handbook. Contact our College Counselor, Christopher.Zinn@portlandwaldorf.org, for questions related to standardized tests, college admissions, and career readiness.

Developments in Higher Education

Trinity College, in Hartford Connecticut, has joined a number of other school that no longer require SAT or ACT test results for students applying for admission. You can read more about their new policy on how to determine if a student is “college ready” athttp://www.trincoll.edu/Admissions/Pages/TestOptional.aspx.

The New York Times recently reported on a new effort underway by large group of the country’s leading colleges and universities. The goal of the Coalition for Access, Affordability, and Success is to increase economic and cultural diversity on their campuses by providing online tools and advice for students interested in college, and eventually to offer an application platform as well. The Times articles discusses some of the controversial questions around this effort to bring more diversity to selective schools. You can read the article at http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/18/opinion/sunday/an-admissions-surprise-from-the-ivy-league.html and visit the website at http://www.coalitionforcollegeaccess.org

Another recently added nationwide tool for college planning can be found at the federal government’s College Scorecard site: https://collegescorecard.ed.gov. The site evaluates schools based on the average income of graduates and similar parameters, but with those limitations it can be useful for comparing a wide range of schools. Much more helpful overall is the College Board’s college planning site at https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org.

Scholarship OpportunitiesThe Jefferson Scholarship to the University of Virginia is a fantastic opportunity that provides full tuition, fees, a living stipend, and generous enrichment benefits, including study abroad. If you would like to learn more about the program and the University of Virginia, go to http://www.jeffersonscholars.org/scholarship

The Eugene McDermott Scholars program at the University of Texas, Dallas, also offers a premiere scholarship and stipend program to highly qualified students. To learn more about this opportunity, go to http://www.utdallas.edu/mcdermott/.

Pathway Oregon at the University of Oregon http://pathwayoregon.uoregon.edu/index.html is a program for students of demonstrated financial need and academic accomplishment. The program covers tuition and fees and students accepted into the program are also eligible for other scholarships.